Book/Food Club’s latest selection, made by Dorothy, leaned heavily toward the food side of the Book/Food Club. Susan Musgrave’s A Taste of Haida Gwaii: Food Gathering and Feasting at the Edge of the World is a cookbook supplemented with Musgrave’s stories, so it offered up an extravagance of food possibilities for our host Leslie.

Leslie rose to the challenge and cooked almost everything in the book. OK, not really, but she outdid herself and definitely raised the bar for Book/Food Club. It’s not like anyone else has been a slouch, either. This worries me somewhat since I am the next host.

Our host industriously followed Menu #4 in the book, starting with Cauliflower Popcorn (incredibly yummy roasted cauliflower) and Super Eats Kale Crisps (organic non-GMO of course) along with a goodly selection of beverages.

The recipe includes whitefish, smoked salmon, corn, potatoes, carrots, coconut milk, cumin, coriander, paprika, hot sauce and cilantro. It was heaven. (As an aside, the Copper Beach House version is based on a recipe from the Red Fish Blue Fish Eatery in Victoria, BC where I dined happily on a trip to the coast last year.) Leslie served the chowder with a hearty sour dough bread and fresh cilantro.

I could have died happy right there, but, onward to the delectable third course!

A layered pasta main course, warm from the oven was the next delight in store for us: tortellini, butternut squash, leeks, mushrooms, lemon, orange, garlic, chives, cream and parmesan. Cilantro and chopped hazelnuts were on hand for toppings. The original recipe includes spruce tips, which would be an interesting addition. (This is by no means a complaint – it was sublime as is).

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I made the happy discovery recently that chive blossoms are edible – they taste like chives! They are very pretty, and my chive plant is a hardy soul. It is always one of the first plants to start growing every spring.

There are a few suggestions for using chive blossoms on the About Food website, and I decided to make Chive Blossom Omelettes for me and my younger sister, who was visiting me for the weekend.

I used eggs from the heritage chicken program at the University of Alberta Farm, and I purchased the goat cheese at the Italian Centre Shop . I knew it was goat cheese because of the helpful image of a goat on the package.

I sautéed the chives and chive blossoms in butter…

…added the goat cheese, folded the omelette over, and let the cheesy goodness melt into the eggs.

It was a gorgeous morning, so we ate outside on our (brand-new-thank-you-to-The-Man-With-Whom-I-Keep-Company) deck.

We also enjoyed fresh strawberries along with delicious danishes from our local organic bakery, Buns and Roses (complete with roses from my garden).

I made iced tea with a fragrant and beautiful tea that I bought when I attended a recent art retreat. It was blended especially for the Harvest Moon Cafe in Val Marie, Saskatchewan, by the Banff Tea Co. The blend is named “Dark Skies” after the dark sky preserve at Grasslands National Park beside Val Marie. The tea is a delightful combination of lavender, rose, and bluepea flowers, lemongrass, horsetail and nettles. It brews up a gorgeous blue-green colour.

A happy chive blossom breakfast to you!

All photographs by Marlena Wyman

Chive Blossom Omelette

Ingredients for each omelette:

2 eggs

2 Tbsps. milk

2 Tbsps. butter (divided)

Salt and pepper

2 Tbsps. chopped chives

1 Tbsps. chive blossoms, removed from stems

1 Tbsps. uncooked chive blossoms for garnish

2 Tbsps. goat cheese, crumbled

Preparation:

Sauté a handful of chopped fresh chives and chive blossoms in 1 Tbsp. butter over medium-low heat in a non-stick sauté pan. Remove chives and set aside.

Crack the eggs into a glass mixing bowl and beat them with a whisk until they turn a pale yellow color.

Add the milk to the eggs and season to taste with salt and pepper. Whisk mixture well, beating as much air as possible into the eggs.

Reheat the pan over medium-low heat. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in pan.

When the butter in the pan is hot enough to make a drop of water hiss, pour in the egg mixture. Cook for up to a minute without stirring or until the bottom starts to set.

With a heat-resistant rubber spatula, gently push one edge of the egg into the center of the pan, while tilting the pan to allow the liquid egg to flow in underneath. Repeat with the other edges, until there’s no liquid left and the bottom is a light golden brown.

Add the goat cheese and the cooked chives & blossoms cheese in a line across the center of the eggs.

With your spatula, lift one edge of the egg and fold it across and over. Turn off the heat and let the cheese melt.

We met at Pat’s house for our April 21, 2016 Book/Food Club to discuss my choice of Alena Graedon’s book, The Word Exchange. The book contained lots of words, but not so many food references. However, Pat rose to the challenge and recreated a comfort food meal inspired by the diner where two of the main characters often met: The Fancy.

Old-fashioned comfort food was a good antidote to the dystopian future that Graedon’s book presented. Our meal was a blue plate special of hearty meat loaf, potatoes and coleslaw, plated by our host who yelled authentically “Order up!” as each of our plates arrived. One of the main characters in the book had a thing about pineapples, so the coleslaw included pineapple, as did one of the beverages and the table’s centrepiece.

Pat cooked the meatloaf on a baking sheet rather than in a loaf pan. This created a greater surface-area-to-loaf ratio allowing for more crunchy crust goodness. I will be making my meatloaf this way from now on.

No diner meal is complete without pie, and our host did not disappoint. Luscious banana cream pie – oh my – and dressed up for company with chocolate shavings. Caramels and licorice, another book reference, rounded out the sweets.

Thank you for the mighty fine feast, dear host. In a word, scrumptious!

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I hosted Book/Food Club at my home on February 25 to talk about Leslie’s book choice: Alice Munro’s first published collection of short stories, Dance of the Happy Shades, published in 1968. It won the Governor General’s Award, and we could see why.

Although the title of the book has the word “happy” in it, and although the stories are beautifully written, happy they are not. The food that she describes in the stories tended toward the plain and dismal, so I remained true to the food references but I engaged in interpretation to honour her beautiful writing.

In some of her stories, the mention of food was straightforward: pickles, cheeses, rolls, apricots, raspberries, pears, grapes, radishes, tomatoes and cucumbers.

However, I fancied up the “cabbage & carrot salad with raisins” that was in the story Postcard. I went to one of my favourite sources, Alive magazine. The February 2016 issue had an intriguing Kohlrabi Slaw. I see kohlrabi in stores, I have painted kohlrabi at a farmer’s market, but I have never eaten kohlrabi. Until now. It is good.

Watercolour sketch of kohlrabi and tomatoes by Marlena Wyman

Here is the recipe:

Page 105, Alive magazine, Issue 400, February 2016

I also chose an interpretation of the salmon loaf that was mentioned in the story Postcard, and I combined it with the potato salad from the story Sunday Afternoon. My ever-dependable Jamie Oliver provided me with that inspiration from his Jamie at Home cookbook.

The full table for Dance of the Happy Shades. Potato Salad with Smoked Salmon is lower centre.

Here is Jamie’s superb recipe. I couldn’t find crème fraîche so I substituted sour cream, but I did find fresh horseradish root at the Italian Centre Shop.

Page 186, Jamie at Home cookbook by Janie Oliver

The Walker Brothers Cowboy story mentions lemon, orange & raspberry concentrate for making refreshing drinks. I settled on Okanagan Sparkling Ripe Raspberry juice and Gerolsteiner carbonated mineral water. The wine was a new organic wine that I had not tried before: Villa Theresa’s Merlot from Italy.

I also could not resist including gorgeous Clementines from the Italian Centre Shop. They carry such beautiful food at that market.

Because this Book/Food Club fell between my and Pat’s birthdays, Leslie kindly offered to bake us a birthday cake. Fortunately, two of the stories featured birthday cakes. Leslie recreated the “pink on white” birthday cake with strawberry ice cream from the Day of the Butterfly story.

Since Neapolitan ice cream had also been mentioned in one of the stories, and as one of the birthday girls, I felt entitled to express my loathing of that particular type of ice cream, especially the sickly-sweet fake flavour of the strawberry layer. I found a food blogger’s post about Neapolitan ice cream that contains too many expletives to repeat, but he calls it “I hate my friends” ice cream. Don’t get me wrong, I love real strawberry ice cream made with real strawberries and with chunks of real strawberries in it. It’s just that fake berry flavour is one of the worst. However, Leslie came through, and how!

Pink and white birthday cake (with candle holes)

I think I terrified Leslie sufficiently, because her splendid scratch-baked strawberry cake was made with real strawberries, iced with cream cheese icing containing real strawberries, and served with Sicilian brand strawberry ice cream made with – yes – real strawberries! Thank you Leslie.

We enjoyed birthday cake in front of a warming fire provided by our new wood stove (the mighty Osburn 900).

When our Book/Food Club last met at the Hotel Macdonald for our 10th anniversary, we asked some of the hotel staff for book suggestions. On the recommendation of Nyal, the Hotel’s concierge, we chose Conrad Kain‘s Where the Clouds Can Go, and we were glad that we did. It was well-suited to the historical interests of our club and took some of us, who are not exactly athletic outdoorswomen let alone mountain climbers, to places of peril and natural beauty without having to leave the comfort of my chair.

As Rocky Mountain Books notes: Of all the mountain guides who came to Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Conrad Kain is probably the most respected and well-known. In this internationally anticipated reissue of Where the Clouds Can Go-first published in 1935, with subsequent editions in 1954 and 1979-Rocky Mountain Books has accentuated the original text with an expanded selection of over 50 archival images that celebrate the accomplishments of Conrad Kain in the diverse mountain landscapes of North America, Europe and New Zealand.

Book\Food Club’s first get-together of 2016 was hosted at Leslie’s house on the evening of January 7th, and it was a hearty feast worthy of Mount Resplendent’s name itself.

Kain was often spoke of being hungry; he was not always well-paid, and often the worst offenders were the rich clients who he guided up mountains. Leslie’s feast, although based on food that Kain ate such as bread, butter, sausages and cheese, did not leave us hungry. It was much more abundant than his meagre meals and without doubt much tastier.

For dessert we enjoyed chocolates and Leslie’s yummy traditional Christmas sugar cookies by the cozy fire, sipping tea for additional warmth. I was ready for a bracing winter walk home – all of two blocks. Thanks Leslie!

All photos by Marlena Wyman unless otherwise noted

Posted by Truly Scrumptious

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Yes, we have been meeting, eating and talking about books for ten years! All of it has been splendid so we thought we should celebrate in equally splendid style. A European trip was discussed, as was a trip to one of many fascinating North American destinations. We reconsidered and downsized a bit, thinking that the iconic Jasper Park Lodge might be doable. At the end of the day, after considering our budgets and schedules, we decided upon a locally splendid outing: Royal Tea in the Harvest Room of Edmonton’s Hotel Macdonald.

The elegant and historic Hotel Macdonald celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. I have always loved this hotel and was happy to celebrate our Book/Food Club’s 10th anniversary along with it.

It is a good idea to attend the Royal Tea with a hearty appetite. In fact, don’t eat anything else that day.

We started with a Prosecco toast to our friendship, books and food.

Our waiter brought a fine selection of teas. We each unhesitatingly chose the enchantingly named Buckingham Palace Garden Party loose leaf tea.

Here is a description from TheTeaTable.com:

Every May, the Queen holds a garden party at Buckingham Palace. The tea that is served is a long time favorite and delicious medley specially selected for this occasion. Intriguing hints of a high-grown Earl Grey flavored Ceylon effortlessly complement the soft jasmine notes of a China green tea. Couple this with malty Assam and golden Kenyan tea and you have one of the most flavorful teas to come from the British Isles. Enjoy this lovely English blend and be a part of the annual tradition in the west gardens of Buckingham Palace! Jasmine and cornflower petals are added for beautiful color.

No High Tea is complete without scones, and the Hotel Macdonald’s are warm, buttery and flaky. These are hefty delights – no dainty offerings in the scone department. Eating two was a requirement since it was necessary to taste both the classic and apple-maple. What’s that? We could have shared? Well, that’s just wrong-thinking.

The scones were accompanied by Devonshire Cream and a Berry Compote. A second round of jam and cream was requested. Could we have managed with just one? I don’t understand the question.

It’s a good thing that we did, because upon hearing about our anniversary celebration, our waiter presented each of us with an anniversary plate of even more delightful sweets. Eyes now whirling in heads.

As we are a Book Club, we managed to tear ourselves away from our feast long enough to talk about Dorothy’s book selection: Edmonton author Janice MacDonald’s murder mystery Condemned to Repeat. Since we were celebrating in a heritage building, it was fitting that MacDonald’s (unintended coincidence of name) book is set in in several heritage institutions in Edmonton, including Rutherford House, Fort Edmonton Park, the Ukrainian Cultural Village, St. Stephen’s College, and the Provincial Archives of Alberta. Also fittingly, our Book Club/Food Club is comprised of four women who work in the heritage field, so we were very familiar with the book’s locations.

MacDonald mentions food in her book, including molasses cookies that were baked at the Rutherfords’ first home relocated to historic Fort Edmonton Park, and tea, scones and raspberry butter pots that were served at Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site on the University of Alberta campus. The Royal Tea feast was meant to be.

Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site. Photo: Government of Alberta

Happy Anniversary to us! Perhaps we will be able to find our way to Europe for our 20th anniversary.

(Note: I apologize for the quality of some of the photos in this post. While I was photographing a Jigg’s Dinner that we ate earlier on our trip, in my excitement I dropped my camera into the gravy on my plate. It hasn’t been quite the same since – a good cleaning is in order!)

We have stayed in the rustic, charming and cozy East Coast Cottages & Cabins a couple of times this trip. The first time we stayed with some of our visiting family and shared The Barn and The Bunky. The orange cottage is also available, and if you really want to rough it, you can stay in the tipi.

The Barn

The Barn is a studio layout, with bed, living, dining and kitchen in one room.

The Bunky

Inside the Bunky

For our second visit, The-Man-With-Whom-I-Keep-Company and I stayed in The Barn. Our kind and congenial hosts, George & Chabela and their son Lukas, did all they could to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable.

We were treated to homemade muffins and jam in the mornings. The Barn has a kitchen where we can make our own meals, but when I noticed the brochure titled “Chabela’s Cuisine”, I wanted to make sure we booked at least one supper with our hosts, who live in the yellow house on the property.

Chabela at work in her kitchen

I couldn’t help noticing George’s collection on a shelf at the end of the kitchen. Those who know me are familiar with my attraction to cabinets of curiosity. (such as the one I created with my friend Chris Westbury)

I also couldn’t help noticing the lovely chanterelle mushrooms that out hosts had gathered that day. Sadly, Chabela did not have time to include them in our meal, but you can’t have it all!

However, I was not disappointed by the meal she had in store for us. A beautiful bouillabaisse of fresh locally-caught cod and scallops in a tomato broth with onions, garlic, fennel bulb, fennel seed, and orange juice & zest, topped with chopped fresh parsley. The fennel and orange zest added a lovely surprising mid note to this hearty soup. A toasted slice of Chabela’s homemade whole wheat bread was immersed in the broth, the toothsome crust adding texture. We were offered seconds and we accepted without hesitation.

A gorgeous salad followed: local spinach, beets, red onions, herbed goat cheese, and caramelized pecans with an olive oil balsamic vinegar dressing. Chabela makes the caramelized pecans and keeps a supply on hand if she is able to successfully hide them from her family.

An animated conversation with Lucas and The-Man-With-Whom-I-Keep-Company

George keeping the wine and water flowing

Dessert, served with ice cream and rhubarb compote, was a selection of homemade brownies, peanut-butter-chocolate cookies, and lemon curd squares. I selected some of each, thank you very much.

We finished the evening with fennel tea and further interesting, enthusiastic conversation. Thanks to our hosts!

Bauline East is a little gem of a community – remote enough to offer quiet reflection but close to sights and attractions and right on the East Coast Trail. The-Man-With-Whom-I-Keep-Company went on some leg-muscle-burning hikes while I sketched the harbour. This is now on our list of top favourite places that we have stayed!

Along with an abundance of wildflowers on our property at Bacon Cove, Newfoundland this year has come an abundance of Stinging Nettle. In particular, it has been seeking out the bare legs of The-Man-With-Whom-I-Keep-Company.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

Stinging Nettle lives up to it’s adjective, but it can also be a healthy and delicious dining delight once the leaves has been picked (wearing rubber gloves!) and steamed for 20 munutes. The Globe & Mail talks about Stinging Nettle’s culinary delights here, including a menu item at the Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland. There are cautions for some medical conditions, so make sure you check those out first.

A friend suggested an omelette, which he had eaten at The Sooke Harbour House. So I cooked up a bit of a gourmet breakfast-for-supper, including:

omelette made with local free-range eggs, sharp cheddar and steamed Stinging Nettles.

Jamie Oliver Humanely-Raised Smoked Bacon

french toast made with bread from the Georgestown Bakery in St. John’s, Newfoundland, served with local Purity Blueberry Jam.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

A good bacon-pairing wine is one of my favourites: Organic Cono Sur Pinot Noir.

Shea sets the story in our home town of Edmonton, Alberta, and we recognized the places and restaurants that she mentions. I put together a table full of tastes from the book, supplied by Edmonton markets, and prepared in my Edmonton kitchen.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

The author mentions that Marie made a special tuna salad for her friend Elizabeth’s visit, so I made a Canned Tuna “Ceviche” from an on-line recipe that I found at the Skinny Taste website. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, since canned tuna can be rather undistinguished, but it was very nice, especially with the freshness that the lime and cilantro provided. This would be lovely to eat on the deck in the summer.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

Marie also made grilled cheese sandwiches for her children, so I created a gourmet grown-up version using camembert, pear slices and fresh basil leaves on sour dough rye. The bread was from my local and favourite bakery Buns and Rose, who make all kinds of fantastic breads and baked goods. They are just a block from my house which could be interpreted as either good or bad.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

The author had Marie eating saltines when she suffered from morning sickness. I fancied them up a bit with some locally made jams.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

Dessert was fashioned after Elizabeth’s hosting of an afternoon tea for Marie: banana bread and lemon tarts with cheeses and fruit. I also baked walnut chocolate chip cookies that were baked for Elizabeth by Marie’s children.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

I decorated the table with a vase of roses. When Margaret went to visit her Down Syndrome daughter Carolyn at the Poplar Grove institution, she always brought her a rose.

Photo by Marlena Wyman

I will leave you with this gorgeous painting by Down Syndrome artist Michael Wasserman.

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I had a delightful evening with friends (some old and some new) making chocolates with raw cacao. This cacao/cocoa thing is all a bit confusing and I started to do some research on it when I got home. As with most things, there are many opinions from one end of the spectrum to the other on the health properties of cacao. Final decision – I don’t care. It is definitely healthier for you and purer than processed chocolate and it’s delicious! I apply my moderation principle to cacao in the same way that I do to all foods. Enjoy the amazing range of food in the world – just don’t be a glutton! I must warn you that the non-gluttony thing is a bit of a challenge in the raw cacao world.

Oh, pity the poor gluttonWhose troubles all beginIn struggling on and on to turnWhat’s out into what’s in. ― Walter de la Mare

We started with organic raw cacao butter. You can buy raw cacao butter from organic food stores and such. Cacao tastes different depending on where it is grown. My friend says she prefers Peruvian cacao.

Chop up the cacao butter so that it will melt more evenly and quickly.

Then set to melting it in a double boiler. Have a candy thermometer handy because you need to keep it under 105 degrees F, and keep stirring it.

If the temperature gets a bit high, like ours did, take it off the element to cool it down a bit.

Raw cacao is bitter, so you can add a natural sweetener such as raw agave, honey, maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar. Add a 1/4 cup of sweetener to 1 cup of cacao butter or whatever your sweet tooth tells you. We added raw agave. By the way, to add to the confusion, there are some agaves that are not as good for you as others.

Organic raw cacao powder (not cocoa powder) is another important ingredient in this recipe. Add 3/4 cup of cacao powder for every cup of cacao butter. You can also add other lovely flavourings such as raw vanilla powder, sea salt and maca powder. What is maca, you ask? Look, you’re just going to have to find out on your own – it’s the first time I had ever heard if it myself. It was an evening of new discoveries!

Add the powdered ingredients while continuously stirring.

Keep stirring until the mixture becomes glossy and thicker.

Get yourself a bunch of darling little baking cups that are used for making chocolates (you can buy them at the Dollar Store) and pour the mixture into them.

Then while the chocolates are still liquid, have fun adding different centres and toppings. You can use cashew butter, maple butter, nuts, coconut, sour cherries – whatever you like.

You can add a bit more of the liquid chocolate mixture to top them off, or just leave them as is. Because they are made with raw cacao, there are no preservatives so you need to freeze the chocolates. Take them out of the freezer and let them sit out for a few minutes just before serving.

Eat slowly, blissfully, and attempt moderation.

Recipe:

Homemade Raw Chocolates

1 cup raw cacao butter

¾ cup raw cacao powder

¼ cup raw agave, honey, maple syrup, or coconut palm sugar

1 tsp raw vanilla powder

Pinch of sea salt

Melt the cacao butter in a double boiler, keeping it under 105 degrees F. Add the cacao powder, sweetener, vanilla and sea salt. Whisk together well and continue stirring until glossy and thicker.